Diversity Lags as Students Are Matched With City Schools

It was decision day for many New York City children on Wednesday, as the Education Department told eighth graders where they had been accepted to high school, and incoming kindergartners where they would start school in the fall.

Entry to eight specialized high schools is based entirely upon a single standardized test, and the schools have long been criticized for the demographic makeup of the students who are admitted. Only about 10 percent of offers from those schools were extended to black and Latino students, though those students make up about 68 percent of the school system.

The Education Department has begun several initiatives that aim to alter that balance, including trying to increase the number of students who take the test, starting by targeting particular districts, and expanding the free DREAM program that helps prepare students for the exam.

Will Mantell, a spokesman for the department, said those initiatives had had encouraging results. An increased percentage of eighth graders took the exam in all the districts targeted last fall, and 33 percent of students in the DREAM program were offered seats at specialized schools.

Nonetheless, the number of offers made to black and Latino students went from 530 last year to 524 this year.

It was a big day not just for the students awaiting news from specialized schools. Nearly 77,000 eighth graders applied to New York City high schools this year, and they all received results on Wednesday.

The admissions process is a massive, complicated undertaking. Tens of thousands of students apply each year, selecting up to 12 schools from anywhere in the city and ranking them in order of preference. A specially designed algorithm matches each student to one school.

Forty-six percent of students received an offer from their first-choice school, the Education Department said, a slight dip from last year’s 48 percent. Seventy-two percent of students were matched with one of their top three choices, down from 75 percent last year.

Ninety-four percent of applicants were matched with a school in the first round of the process. Students who did not receive an offer will try again in Round 2, competing for schools that still have space.

Offer letters were also sent on Wednesday to families with children starting kindergarten in the fall. The majority of students attend the kindergarten they are zoned for, based on where they live, but families are still encouraged to apply through a central process. Of the 69,000 children who applied, 71 percent were matched with their first-choice school, and 84 percent received an offer from one of their top three schools. Ten percent of students were offered a spot at a school they had not chosen.

About 1,100 students were wait-listed for kindergarten at their zoned school, a 4 percent drop from last year.

The Education Department has been providing more support for homeless families in the shelter system as they apply to send their children to school. Only 41 percent of eligible 4- and 5-year-olds living in the shelter system applied for kindergarten this year, but that was an increase from the 36 percent last year.

“While there are many promising trends this admissions cycle — more support for students in shelters, fewer elementary schools with wait-lists, and schools meeting their Diversity in Admissions targets — it’s clear there is much more work to do,” the schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, said in a statement. “Ultimately, the focus has to be — and is — on ensuring equity and excellence across every public school in New York City.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Number of Blacks and Latinos Accepted to Top City Schools Changes Little. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe